Ride: The tale of the broken stripper

An eloquent mosaic of Amy Winehouse’s rawness and Adele’s passion, Lana Del Rey’s Ride encapsulates what it means to lonely in a crowded world

In modern-day music, storytelling is a rare commodity. We find ourselves surrounded by materialistic narratives, unoriginal production, and music that’s built around numbers rather than words. From the small pool of songs that have a message, there are two types. There are those that narrate a book, a lyrics sheet, a piece of text.

The thing that makes Lana Del Rey’s Ride so special is that it chronicles a journey through life in under five minutes.

When you first hear Ride, the psychedelic hum at the beginning, the melancholic piano progression, and the poignant string-powered crescendos clearly exemplify the emotion and sentiment behind the track. The smooth transition between the verses, the chorus, and the hook showcases a certain elegance and opulence that harkens back to the glory days of the late 60s. However, when you look at the lyrics, its anything but. Woven into the refined and lush instrumentation are lyrics like, “You can be my full-time daddy, white and gold” and “Drink all day and we talk ’til dark”. Similar to Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black, Lana has not dressed up her emotion in a pretty and approachable manner and has instead chosen to leave them naked and unadulterated. You’re seeing her for who she really is.

The protagonist of the track is likely similar to if not the same one as in her previous track Carmen. In this song, she shows two sides of the same coin. On one hand, we see the free-spirited woman who is detached from all obligations and is out in the world, as the first verse shows. However, lyrics like “But I, I’ve got a war in my mind” shows, not a different person, but rather a different perspective on the same situation. Similar to her previous track Carmen, Lana takes the opportunity to showcase the darker side to lifestyles normally romanticized and glorified in Hollywood.

In verse 2, we are given a glimpse to life before her journey. She sings,

Dying young and playing hard
That’s the way my father made his life an art
Drink all day and we talk ’til dark
That’s the way the road dogs do it
Light ’til dark

Lana has sung many times and mentioned about her father’s influence. On Cola, she talks about pledging allegiance to her father. Following in her father’s footsteps, she’s prioritized her personal pleasure over everything else, overruling even her own health and dignity. The facade of true happiness her father’s poor lifestyle choices showcased tempted an already broken girl to look in dark places.

In the chorus, she sings,

Been trying hard not to get into trouble
But I, I’ve got a war in my mind
So, I just ride, just ride
I just ride, I just ride

She tries to stay on the right track. But, as the song says, she’s conflicted from within. The very core of who she is is split into two. There’s the side of her that wants order. The side wants a place to call home, a person to be with, and the security of a relationship. Along with this is the other side. The side that, in the pursuit of happiness, is willing to compromise on all of Lana’s moral principles, from sugar daddies and sexual favors to drugs and alcohol. The old men that Lana sheds her dignity for also give her the sense of belonging she always craved. The alcohol and drugs that are slowly chipping away at her humanity give her the happiness she never actually found.

Hence, she leaves it up to fate. She just flows through the roads her life takes her through and lets fate decide for her. Unfortunately, this creates a deep divide that reaches to the very depths of her persona. In her recent single titled hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have — but I have it, she addresses this, singing,

A modern day woman with a weak constitution, ’cause I’ve got
Monsters still under my bed that I could never fight off

These monsters from her adolescence still haunt her and leave her with a conflicting set of principles. This sentiment climaxes in Ride’s bridge, where she roars,

I’m tired of feeling like I’m f****** crazy
I’m tired of driving ’til I see stars in my eyes
All I’ve got to keep myself sane, baby
So I just ride, I just ride

She’s done struggling with who she is. She can no longer take the pain. She just rides, agreeing to disagree. Consequentially, this moral ambiguity means that she can fit in with everyone but doesn’t belong to anyone. There isn't a group of like-minded people she can call her own kind.

The Ride music video itself has enough content to warrant another article. The video, which is actually a short 10-minute film, adds an evocative and unrestrained monologue before and after the song which goes into further detail about the song’s meaning. I highly recommend anyone interested to see the video as well.

I once had dreams of becoming a beautiful poet.
But upon an unfortunate series of events saw those dreams dashed and divided like a million stars in the night sky